Posts tagged Music

Browsing the Android market yesterday I came across SoundHound, a music ID service similar to Shazam but with a difference, it will identify you humming or singing a song as well as recorded music. So I thought I’d give it a try, compare it to Shazam and share my thoughts.

Click on the images to enlarge…..

SoundHound Home

Shazam Home

SoundHound Listening

Shazam Listening

SoundHound Match

Shazam Match

SoundHound matches Singing

Shazam Singing Fail

SoundHound History

shazam history

SoundHound Share

Visually I prefer SoundHound until it comes to the history page, where Shazam’s use of album art wins. With regards to the overall functionality of the app again I prefer SoundHound, the ‘eye candy’ whilst listening to a track is far nicer than that of Shazam, showing the feedback from the mic as it listens.

SoundHound also offers the ability to share the track you have just found via email or Twitter, a function not found in Shazam. It also offers the option to tag a track that you hum or sing, which amazingly worked as I casually sang ‘Angels’ by Robbie Williams at my Nexus One.

Both Apps carry ads to support them, but with SoundHound you only get 5 tags per month (sharing tracks to Twitter will get you an extra 3) at which point it will cost £3.38 ($4.99) to upgrade to the premium version which will allow unlimited tags and will be ad free. Shazam on the other hand gives you unlimited tags (AFAIK) and there is no option to upgrade and remove the ads.

I am typically a low user so 5 tags will be enough for me, but a one off cost of £3.38 isn’t too bad if it will recognise tracks in my head….